Hair drying apparatus



Filed May 29, 1934 5 Sheets-$heet l INVENTOR.

Tam/#750 Mafia/9g ATTORNEY.

VIAIAIAKIIIIIl/l Mw Qwm 1935. T. I. MOSELEY HAIR DRYING APPARATUS FiledMay 29, 1954 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

m mu-Hfmw @cfm 11, 19355.,

T. 1. MOSELEY HAIR DRYING APPARATUS Filed May 29. 1934 5 Sheets-Sheet 3INVENTOR.

75/77///750/7 Maia/6y ATTORNEY.

Patented Oct. 1, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 8 Claims.

This invention relates generally to apparatus for drying human hair,such as are useful in commercial beauty parlors.

In the past it has been common in beauty par- 5 lors to employindividual portable units for the drying of hair, each'unit consistingof a fan or blower, an electrical air heater, and air delivery means fordirecting the heated air upon a head of hair. In a large shop a largenumber of such units involves a considerable capital investment, and theelectrical power load drawn becomes excessive. In place of suchindividual units, it has been proposed to employ a single blowerinstallation, connected to a plurality of air distributors. Prior to myinvention, such apparatus has met with indifierent success, due to lackof flexibility inmaking installations, failure in properly equalizingtemperatures for the different distributors, and to the absence ofproper control. Likewise, such installations, if they utilize anelectrical source of heat, are expensive to operate.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a successful hairdryer of the type utilizing a single blower with a plurality ofdistributors, which will avoid the difllculties outlined above.

More specific objects of the invention are as follows: To provideautomatic means for shutting off flow of air to a distributor which isnot in use; to provide a selective adjustment under the 30 control of anoperator whereby the temperature of the air supplied by any onedistributor can be varied over a wide range; and to facilitate manufacture of standardized parts which can be assembled to provideinstallations meeting the varying demands of different shops. 7

Further objects of the invention will appear from the followingdescription in which the preferred embodiment of the invention has beenset forth in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. l is a side elevational View, partly in crosssection, illustratingapparatus incorporating the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional detail taken along the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional detail taken along the line 33 of Fig.1.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional detail illus- 50 trating the valvemeans which I preferably utilize for automatically shutting off supplyof air to a distributing unit.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional detail illustrating the manner inwhich the air tube of each 55 distributing unit communicates with thecold and hot air header conduits, and the single manipulation valvemeans for selectively controlling the supply of air to the distributingunits.

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional detail, the section being indicated by theline 6-6 of Fig. 5. 5

Fig. 7 is a detail in plan, showing the blower installation and a partof the heating unit associated with the same.

Fig. 8 is a circuit diagram for the electrical parts of my apparatus.

- Referring first to Fig. 1, my apparatus consists of a plurality of airdistributors or distributing assemblies H.) which are connected toanelongated housing ll. One end of this housing connects with abox-likecasing 12 which serves to housethe 15 air blower l3. As shown moreclearly in Figs. 2 and 3, the housing II is formed of suitable materialsuch as sheet metal, and may be square or rectangular in cross-section.Fitted within this housing there is a heat-insulated conduit I6, the 20upper wall of which is spaced from the top wall of the housing to forman upper interior passage or conduit l1. As will be presently explained,conduit I6 is for the purpose of conveying heated air, while conduit orpassage ll conveys cold or unheated air. Both of these conduitspreferably extend for substantially the entire length of the housing. Inorder to facilitate manufacture and to afford flexibility in makinginstallations, the housing, and also the walls of conduit Iii, areformed in separable sections coupled together by the junctions l 5.

In order to heat air discharged by the blower [3, there is a heaterwhich, for economy of operation, preferably utilizes fuel gas. Thusthere is shown an elongated U shaped heater tube l8, forming acontinuous U-shaped passage l9, and disposed in the lower part ofhousing It (Fig. 1). One branch of this tube is associated with a gasburner 2|, while the other branch is connected to a flue pipe 22.Propagation of a fuel flame through tube l8, together with the passageof hot products of combustion, causes the walls of the tube to be heatedto an elevated temperature, thus transferring heat to the surroundingair. The delivery pipe 23 of blower l3 communicates with the housing IIat the junction 24 between this housing and the casing l2. It will benoted from Fig. 1 that a part of the air stream is discharged into thecold-air conduit l1, and another part into the hot-air conduit [6immediately above the heater tube I 8. In order to secure better contactbetween the stream of air and the walls of the heater tube I8,deflectors or baflle plates 26 and 21 are mounted upon the 55 heatertube l8 (Fig. 1). These bafile plates direct the stream of airdownwardly about thewalls of the heater tube.

In order to secure an equalized distribution of hot air, it is desirablenot to supply the distributors Ill, which are relatively close to theheater tube IS, with hot air directly from the conduit it. Therefore,immediately overlying the heater tube I8 and within the conduit Hi,there is a secondary conduit 3|. That end of the secondary conduit whichis nearest the blower end of housing ll is closed, while the other endterminates in a scoop-like air diverter 32. This diverter receives apart of the heated air leaving the heater tube l8 and returns it backthrough the secondary conduit. 7

The individual distributor assemblies Ill may vary in construction, but,as illustrated, each unit consists of an upright pipe 33 which ismounted upon the upper wall of housing H.

34', the. upper end'portion'36 of which is bent forwardly to form an airoutlet 31. The air delivery device carriedby outlet 31 may be in theform of a hood 4|, consisting of an inner perforated wall 42 and anouter imperforate shell 43. The space between these walls is incommunication with an opening through collar 44, which in turn ishingedly connected to the outlet 31 by means of pin 46. With such anarrangement, the hood 4| can be swung upwardly to an outof-the-wayposition as shown in full lines in Fig. 5, or downwardly as shown indotted lines, to bring the opening in collar 44 in registry with outlet31, with the hood embracing a head of hair to be dried.

. When only a part of the distributors are in operation, the hoods 4| ofthe remainder are swung upwardly to out-of-the-way positions. It isdesirable to shut off supply of air to units not in operation, both forthe sake of economy and in order to-avoid undue heating of the room inwhich the apparatus is installed. Rather than to rely on a valve whichmust be manually opened or closed by the operator, I provide a valvewhich is automatically operated by swinging movement of the hood. Thus,as shown in Fig. 5, I privide a pivoted butterfly valve member 47 withinthe outlet 31. Carried by the pivot pin 46, between the spring washers48, there is an arm 49. The free end of this arm is connected to thebutterfly valve member 41 by' link 5|. During initial downward swingingmovement of hood 4! about the position shown in solid lines in Fig. 5,arm 49 likewise rotates by virtue of a frictional engagement afforded byspring washers 48. Such movement of arm 49 effects opening of valvemember 47. After valve member 41 has been moved to full open position,arm 49 ceases to rotate, although downward swinging of the hood may becontinued to the operating position illustrated in dotted lines. whenthe hood M is swung upwardly to an outof-the-way position, initialupward swinging movement causes immediate closing of the valve member41.

The telescopic engagement of pipes 33 and 34 enables averticaladjustment of each hood; In order to counterbalance the weightof the adjustable parts, each assembly is shown provided with an innercompression spring 52, the upper end of which is seated upon a lug53,"and the lower end of which is seated upon a ledge 54. Pipe 34 canberetained in any desired vertical position by means of set-screw 55.

Telescopically engaging the pipe 33 there is another pipe Conversely,

The means for establishing communication between the lower end of eachpipe 33 and the conduits within housing I I is shown in detail in Fig.

. 4. Thus, the lower end of each pipe 33 is mounted upon an annularflange 56, which in turn is se- 5 cured to the upper wall of housing II. Depending from the underside of flange 56 are the stub conduits orducts 51 and 58. Conduit 51 serves to establish communication betweenthe cold-air conduit I! and pipe 33, while conduit 58 serves 10 toestablish communication with the hot-air conduit IS. The lower end ofstub conduit 58 can be cut off at an angle, as illustrated, in order tomore effectively divert air into the same.

In order to selectively control the flow of cold 15 and hot air throughthe stub conduits 51 and 58 to pipe 33, I have shown means including apair of pivoted butterfly valve members 59 and 6L. Journaled in one sideof flange 56 there is a vertical shaft 62, the upper end' of which car-20 ries a manipulating handle 63. Secured to the inner end of shaft 62there isan arm 64 which in turn is connected to one end of link 66.Secured to the pivot pin for valve member 59 there is an arm 61, thefree end of which is likewise 25 connected to link 66. Therefore, uponrotation. of shaft 62 arm 6'! may be swung through 90 to efiect opening.and closing of valve member 59. In order to effect operation of valvemember 6| by the same manipulating handle 63, the pivot 30 pin for thisvalve member is secured to an arm 68 which in turn is pivotallyconnected to link 69. A pin and slot connection ll serves to connectlink 69 to arm 61. With the valve members 59 and 6| positioned as shownin Fig. 4, only hot 35 air will be supplied to the pipe 33 through stubconduit 58. As arm 61 is rotated. in a clockwise direction by rotationof manipulating handle 63, partial opening of valve member 59 occurs, topermit entry of cold air to blend with 627. the heated air. Movement ofarm 61 beyond the limits of the pin and slot connection 1| causesclosing movement of valve member 6|, so that when valve member is infull open position, valve member BI is closed. Thus it is apparent that5. by selectively positioning handle 63, either cold or hot air may bedelivered to pipe 33, or the cold and hot air streams may be intermixedin varying proportions.

In Fig. 4 the stub conduit 58 is shown com- 0" municating through theupper wall of the hot air conduit l6. For those distributing unitslocated relatively close to the heater tube I 8, as for example thefirst two units as illustrated in Fig. l, the stub conduit 58communicates with 55 the secondary hot-air conduit 3|.

While, if desired, the supply of gas to the burner 2! can be controlledmanually, I preferably provide an automatic control utilizing athermostat. Thus, in Fig. '7 the gas supply pipe 13 to 0? the burner 2iconnects through an electrically operated valve 274. The burner is alsoprovided with a suitable pilot burner which is supplied with gas throughtube #6. Electrical connections for the electrically-operated valve 14,and also for 5 the'driving motor 1'! of the blower, are shown in Fig. 8.Thus, the current supply lines 18 serve to supply current to the primaryof a stepdown transformer 79. The low-voltage secondary circuit 8! ofthis transformer includes the con- 70 tacts of a pilot thermostat 82,the windings of the electrically operated valve 14, and the contacts ofa control thermostat 83. The blower motor 11 is adapted to be connecteddirectly across the lines '18 by the starting switch 84.

Switch84 also carries a pair or contacts whereby when the motor circuitis opened the control circuit 8i is rendered inoperative. As has beenindicated diagrammatically in Fig. 8, thermostat 83 is located at somesuitable point within thehot-air conduit l6, preferably a considerabledistance beyond the end of the heater tube l8. When the temperature ofthe heated air increases eyond a predetermined desired value, thecontacts of thermostat 83 are opened, to cause closing of theelectrically operated valve 14 and to extinguish the main burner flame.When the temperature of the heated air falls below a predeterminedvalue, the contacts of thermostat 83 are again established, to openvalve 14 and again supply gas to the main burner. Pilot thermostat 82merely serves to render the control circuit inoperative in the eventboth the main burner and the pilot valve become extinguished.

In addition to the main operating and control circuit described above,the upper wall of housing H may be provided with convenient electricaloutlets for making electrical connections to various appliances. Asshown in Fig. 8, these outlets can all be connected to a separatecurrent supply circuit 81.

Operation of my apparatus can now be briefly reviewed asfollowsz-Assuming that the apparatus is in operation, a flame ispropagated in the heater tube It, and products of combustion from thistube are delivered to the flue 22. The blower delivers air to the hotand cold conduits l6 and ii, to be distributed to the various assembliesiii. The operator may selectively control the temperature of airsupplied to any one assembly, over a range varying from the temperatureof the heated air to the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere, bymanipulating handle 63. Units not in operation are closed to.

discharge of air, by virtue of the automatically operated butterflyvalve member 41. By virtue of the automatic thermostat 83, the apparatusautomatically accommodates itself to varying capacities, whereby thetemperature of the heated air remains substantially the sameirrespective of the number of units being employed.

I claim:

1. In hair drying apparatus, separate hot and cold air conduitsextending substantially parallel in a horizontal direction, a blowerarranged to deliver streams of air to both of said conduits, means forheating air supplied to the hot air conduit, a plurality of laterallyspaced air distributor units, a pair of cold and hot air ducts servingto effect communication between each of said distributor units and thecold and hot air conduits, a pair of valve members associated with eachpair of said ducts to control flow of air through the same, wherebythere is a cold air valve for each cold air duct and a hot air valve foreach hot air duct, a single manually operated member for each pair ofvalve members, and means serving to effect conjoint adjustment of eachpair of valve members by movements of its associated operating member,said last means including a lost motion connection enabling adjustmentof one valve member independently of adjustment of the other.

2. In hair drying apparatus, separate hot and cold air conduitsextending substantially parallel in a horizontal direction, a blowerarranged to deliver streams of air to both of said conduits, means forheating air supplied to the hot air conduit, a plurality of laterallyspaced air distributor units, a pair of cold and hot air ducts servingto efiect communication between each ofsaid distributor units and thecold and hot air conduits, a pair of valve members associated with eachpair of said ducts to control flow of air through the same, wherebythere is a cold air valve for each 5 cold air duct and a hot air valvefor each hot air duct, a single manually operated member for each pairof valve members, and means serving to eifect conjoint adjustment ofeach pair of valve members by movements of its associated 10 operatingmember, said last means including a lost motion connection enablingclosing and opening of the cold air valve while the associated hot airvalve remains in full open position.

3. In hair drying apparatus, a device adapted to encompass the head andto deliver drying air, a pipe connected to a source of air underpressure, a hinge serving to connect the structure with said pipewhereby said structure may be swung to an operating position incommunication with said pipe or to an out-of-the-Way position, and meansincluding a butterfly valve for effecting automatic closing of said piperesponsive to swinging of said device to said outof-the-way position.

4. In hair drying apparatus, a device adapted to encompass the head andto deliver drying air,

a pipe connected to a source of air under pressure, a hinge connectedbetween said device and said pipe whereby said device may be swung to anoperating position in communication with said pipe or to anout-of-the-way position, a butterfly valve member pivotally mountedwithin said pipe for effecting opening and closing of the same, andactuating means serving to effeet closing of said valve member when saiddevice is swung to an out-of-the-way position and to eiTect opening ofsaid valve member when the device is swung to an operating position.

5. In hair drying apparatus, an elongated air 4 heater, a blower, meansfor delivering air from the blower into contact with the heater and in adirection longitudinally thereof, conduit means for directing the flowof heated air leaving the heater whereby the heated air is caused tofiow in opposite directions, one direction being back towards theblower, and a plurality of spaced air distributors having communicationwith said conduit means.

6. In a hair dryer, an elongated air heater, 9. blower, means fordelivering air from the blower into contact with the heater and in adirection longitudinally thereof,- conduit means for dividing the flowof heated air leaving the heater whereby the heated air is caused toflow in opposite directions, one direction being back towards theblower, a single elongated housing enclosing the heater and the conduitmeans, said housing being formedto afford a cold air conduit arranged toreceive cold air from the blower, and a plurality of spaced airdistributors connected to the housing, each of said units havingprovision for establishing communication with both said cold air conduitand said conduit means.

7. In hair drying apparatus, an elongated air conduit, a blower arrangedto deliver air into one end of the conduit, an elongated heater disposedwithin the conduit and extending vfrom the blower end thereof, asecondary conduit disposed within the first conduit and superposed overthe heater, the blower end of the secondary conduit being closed and theother end thereof being formed to divert into the same a portion of thehot air leaving the heater, a plurality of air distributorscommunicating with said firstnamed conduit at points beyond thesecondary conduit, and a plurality of air distributors communicating atspaced points with the secondary conduit.

8. In hair drying apparatus, an elongated air conduit, a blower arrangedto deliver air into one end of the conduit, an elongated heater disposedwithin the conduit and extending from the blower end thereof, asecondary conduit disposed within the first conduit and superposed overthe heater, the blower end of the secondary conduit being closed and theother end being formed to divert into the same a portion of the hot airleaving the heater, a single elongated housing serving toencompass'theheater and both said conduits, said housing serving to form a thirdcold-air conduit having one end thereof communicating with the blower,and a plurality of air distributors connected at spaced points with thehousing, certain of said distributors nearest the heater havingprovision for establishing communication with both said secondaryconduit and said cold-air conduit, the remainder of said distributorsremote from the heater having provision for establishing communicationwith said both cold-air conduit and said firstmentioned conduit.

TOMLINSON I; MOSELEY. 15

